|
 |
|
Scam With $100 Bills
Agents from the Economy Crimes section of the Costa Rican Judiciary Police
warned about a scam with $100 bills, allegedly smuggled out of Nigeria, in
Africa.
The ruse consists in showing a person a large amount of $100 bills,
supposedly stained by Nigerian authorities, and the need to obtain certain
chemicals needed to clean them.
At least one of the bills is good, and they give it to their "victim", who
takes it to a bank and cashes it, therefore confirming the validity of the
currency. The next step consists in getting the victim to provide them with
an amount of money to buy the chemicals to "clean" the other bills.
If a person falls for the ruse and gives them the money, he will soon find
that the scammers just disappeared and he is left with hundreds of forged
U.S. bills. According to the police, there is at least one known case in
which a man lost $60,000.
Five Fishing Boats Sank
In recent months, five fishing boats that have
Puntarenas - in the Costa Rican Pacific - as their homeport, have caught
fire and sunk in the high seas. These events have caused the death of at
least 11 of their compound crews.
The boats were all owned by Chinese entrepreneurs, three of them were
registered in Costa Rica, one in Taiwan, and one in Belize.
A probe by the daily La Nación, prompted by the unusual series of accidents
ailing the long liners, found that all of them had been carrying excess fuel
- even four times more than the total capacity of their tanks - and that in
each case a fire had brought about the sinking of the vessels.
The reason to exceed the fuel capacity of the tanks is allegedly that they
have to sail far out of their range to catch the fish, which is found every
time farther from coastal waters.
Lethal Combination
A mix of at least three drugs - cocaine and heroine included - killed two
U.S. young men in an apartment east of San Jose last October.
This fact surfaced as a result of the autopsies and other tests carried out.
One of the investigators asserted that "their death was accidental. They
brought it upon themselves." The police identified the two men, both 24,
only by their family names: Ecke, from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cushman, from
New York.
United Airlines Launches Costa Rica Service
United Airlines is further expanding its service from Dulles International
Airport. Thursday was set for its inaugural flight from Dulles to San Jose,
Costa Rica. The flight was scheduled to leave Dulles at 5:30 p.m.
United also will begin Saturday-only service from Dulles to Cancun, Mexico,
this weekend.
The expanded United flights come ahead of United's addition of its low-cost
carrier Ted to Dulles. Beginning in April, Ted will offer service to Las
Vegas, Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale. It says the Ted service will eventually
offer 15 daily departures from Dulles.
Ted is United's attempt to win back cost-conscious travelers it has been
losing to other bargain carriers like Jet Blue and AirTran. Ted launched its
service Thursday with its inaugural flight from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale.
|
 |
|
Brazil to reopen its embassy in Iraq
The Brazilian government has decided to reopen embassy in Baghdad
to tap business potentials inpost-Saddam Iraq, but the date has yet to be
fixed yet.
"The idea is to reactivate the embassy in Baghdad to seize business
opportunities and to appoint a business attache to make them work," a
Brazilian Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday.
Trade between Brazil and Iraq reached its highest in 1980, with a volume of
4.1 billion US dollars, but it gradually declined since Iraq had war with
Iran. After the 1991 Gulf War Brazil supported the sanctions imposed by the
United Nations on Iraq.
Three years ago, the then President Fernando Henrique Cardoso intended to
reopen the embassy but the plan was paralyzed after the Sept. 11 attacks in
the United States.
Until then, companies like the state-run oil firm Petrobras and the
constructor Mendes Junior had presence in Iraq.
A team from the Foreign Ministry will shortly visit Baghdad to make
evaluations on sending diplomats back to the war-torn country that faces
serious security problems.
Brazil was shocked last year by the death of the Brazilian-born high
commissioner to the United Nations in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, in the
attack that destroyed the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The building of the Brazilian embassy was not affected in the explosion and
a Brazilian official is taking care of the installations now.
Current diplomatic relations between Brazil and Iraq are channeled through
the Brazilian mission in Jordan.
Bird flu found in live chicken markets in New
Jersey
A low-risk strain of bird flu virus has been found at four live chicken
markets in the US state of New Jersey, days after outbreaks in Delaware led
to the killings of tens of thousands of birds, local newspaper reported
Thursday.
The virus detected in New Jersey is called H7N2, the same as the one
discovered last week in a farm in Kent County, Delaware. A second farm in
Delaware's Sussex County was confirmed to be infected by H7 bird flu on
Tuesday, but test results of the exact virus subtype are not immediately
available.
The H7N2 virus is not a great concern to humans, although there is some risk
of it mutating into a more pathogenic form, Clifton Lacy, commissioner of
New Jersey's state Department of Health and Senior Services, told The
Star-Ledger, a local newspaper in the state.
The findings are not unusual, state officials stressed, saying the virus has
been present in live poultry markets in New York and New Jersey for many
years.
"Our theory is those live markets in northern New Jersey and New York City
keep it circulating," Richard Lobb at the National Chicken Council, which
represents the country's largest poultry producers, was quoted by the
newspaper as saying.
New Jersey tested the live chicken markets in late January, as it typically
does every winter. Results are in for about half of the state's 35 markets,
with four markets confirmed positive to the virus.
The state typically finds bird flu at about 40 percent of the live chicken
markets, despite strict controls designed to prevent the virus from reaching
them, said Nancy Halpern, the state veterinarian.
It is likely at least one bird was infected at each of the four markets,
though the virus also might have been found on cages, said Halpern, who
would not identify which market has been infected.
Following the findings of bird flu at the two farms, officials in Delaware
have destroyed more than 80,000 chickens and quarantined about 80 farms
within six-mile (10-km) radius of the infected spots.
The bird flu outbreaks in Delaware have prompted a growing number of
countries to ban US poultry imports.
US chicken producers export more than 15 percent of their bird sannually for
more than a billion dollars in revenue. Dissident presses for more rights
Cuba: Dissident presses for more rights
A leading dissident group on Tuesday unveiled a list of proposals
it plans to submit to local government representatives in favor of free
speech, private business ownership and the formation of labor unions.
The proposals include that Cubans be allowed to come and go from the island
without restrictions, buy and sell cars and houses, run their own
businesses, form unions, subscribe to the Internet and buy cable television.
The 36-page document was announced by Vladimiro Roca, a former military
pilot who broke with the socialist government more than a decade ago and
began calling for a Western-style democracy.
The initiative represents one of numerous proposals that have been presented
over the years by opposition groups.
''The intention is to mobilize people using the [government] mechanisms that
they have available to them,'' said Roca, who plans to submit the proposals
to the local district representative, the lowest level of government.
The idea is that eventually the proposals would reach the highest level, the
National Assembly.
Roca, spokesman for the opposition United For All movement, said the
proposals are a step toward the goal of achieving peaceful change on the
communist island.
''It is a document to encourage people to seek change,'' he said.
Last month, a new government law went into effect restricting most Internet
access over the low-cost government phone service Cubans have at home.
Amnesty International criticized the measure as 'yet another attempt to cut
off Cubans' access to alternative views and a space for discussing them.''
The dissidents also have repeated a call to abolish the death penalty and
are demanding the immediate release of political prisoners.
Roca spent several years in jail for his dissident activities in the 1990s.
The group first compiled the recommendations in December 2002, and since
have shared them with thousands of citizens, Roca said.
''Even members of the Communist Party read [the document] and they liked
it,'' Roca said.
There was no immediate comment Tuesday from the government, but Cuban
authorities have criticized dissidents in the past for appealing to the
international media instead of trying to act through the established legal
system.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
